On Fashionising.com’s Pinterest account we have a board titled Fashion Photography As Art. It’s there because I believe that two types of photo shoots dominate the fashion pictorial landscape: the literal and the artistic. There is blur between them, but I separate the two by what they’re attempting to communicate – literal photo shoots impart styling advice, artistic photo shoots impart a feeling. And impart…

It’s often suggested that Victoria’s Secret are one of the few fashion companies with the ability to ‘make’ a model. If that be true, then there’s another fashion company whose power of influence needs to be acknowledged: Burberry. Having brought her to many a person’s attention, there’s no doubt that Burberry have made a name out of Cara Delevingne. And her smouldering looks certainly have…

The real greaser girls probably would be aghast at just how chic they’re now considered. They were the rebels of their day. They were the subculture, the alternates. But oh how we now romanticise them. How we polish them and make them pretty. The alternates have now become conservative.

Every fashion trend has its poster-girl. The sapphic and androgynous did, as did rock, but the 1950s fashion trend revival has to find its own. Or has it? For the second time in as many months, model Miranda Kerr graces a magazine’s pages transformed from Victoria’s Secret bombshell into mid-20th Century pin up.

Swimwear pictorials normally follow a recipe. One part photographer, one part model, one part waterside location (preferably a beach), several parts swimwear and so on. The colours of the resulting photo shoot are usually both intense and saturated, all communicating the beauty of summer and the intensity of its sun. Few pictorials venture elsewhere. Return to the Sea by Michael David Adams does however. It…

Victoria’s Secret might have done much to reintroduce the topless monokini to an internet-age but modern conservatism being what it is, this was one cut of swimwear never likely to be seen outside the realms of advertising. As much as people like to profess otherwise, not all of society’s values are waning and Rudi Gernreich’s topless swimsuits of the early 1960s would be just as…

There’s volume in McQ fall 2012, but it’s always kept at bay with strict waist cinching. And we mean always. It’s become part of the McQ aesthetic, that strict femininity that at once hides yet celebrates the female form, here in skirt lengths that dust the knees and coats that border on military heaviness. Such cuts could lose their appeal but keeping the waist the…

Remember the days when Victoria’s Secret shoots took place in your Grandmother’s living room, right beside the indoor potplants and floral chaise lounge? The same days when the Angels wore their hair in fluffy ringlets and spent less time at the beach and more time doing traditional feminine activities like making tapestries and pretending to read from leather-bound books, all the while threatening to transcend…

From bright golden yellow to soft lemon meringue, rich mustard to neon chartreuse: spring 2012 gets a burst of optimism with sunshine hues. But in donning yellow clothing or accessories for the warmer months, it's important to get it right. After the break, which shades to choose and how to wear yellow this year.

Why intoxication and drug use are as trend-based as fashion; where men’s jewellery is headed; how to accept a compliment; and talking with Stella McCartney. After the break, settle in and enjoy our five weekend reads.